Are You Motivating Smart?

Sep

We are a long way from a Fordism form of management, and we’ve surpassed Taylorism Principles of scientific management. Times have definitely changed and Employee Management Practices have become increasingly important, especially when you consider the following data:

95% correlation between balance sheet and business value (1978)

vs.

28% correlation between balance sheet and business value (2005)

There’s a significance difference so, what has changed? Business Value is no longer driven solely from financial indicators or what your current assets are. Business value is now driven by Intangible Assets such as:

– Intellectual property

– Strategy

– Brand

– Systems

– Processes

– Access to capital

– Off balance sheet items

– Customer reputation

– Executive Team

Are you Motivating Smart?

In order to determine whether or not your Intangible Assets are where they should be, take this survey by assigning a 1-5 value to each statement; 5 being the highest.

Take the Survey

1. Employees’ values, motivations, and talents are understood and measured.

4. Employees hold each other accountable against agreed upon plans and standards.

5. We have open and honest communication that empowers employees.

Survey Results

Now add up the scores and divide by 5 your score.

– 4-5: means that you are motivating smart.

– 3-3.8 : means that you are in the caution zone and need improvements to your motivating program. You can benefit from better alignment, making you much more productive and profitable.

– Below 3: you are in the danger zone and are probably out of alignment, may have poor motivational programs, and are much less productive and less profitable than you could be.

Why Motivating Smart is Important?

(from David Norton, Balanced Scorecard Report Vol. 3, No.5 Oct 2011).

– Only 5% of workforce understand their company’s strategy

– Only 15% of senior management spends more than 1 hour a month defining strategy and aligning operations to it

– Only 25% have their operations aligned to the strategy

– Only 40% align company from budget to strategy

How can companies motivate smarter?

1. Develop a long term strategy. Having a clear direction makes it easier for all areas of a business; much like being at sea, a long-term strategy is the final destination, and every company ship will align their compass to reach the same goal.

2. Develop a comprehensive orientation program for all new employees. Having employees that understand the culture and environment they work in facilitates cooperation and motivation.

3. Hold company-wide meetings in order to share information about the company on a regular basis (quarterly) and openly share information with them so that you can establish a regular and recurring dialogue with your employees.

4. Sponsor company social events outside of a work setting to cement relationships that are developed inside the organization.

5. Create a culture of caring and motivating.

6. Offer profit or gainsharing pay.

Doing the Right Things Right

Every company is different, so every motivational strategy will be different. Here are three different strategies to consider:

1. Family –like community: employees are motivated primarily out of sense of responsibility to one another and the company

2. Interesting and Rewarding Jobs – employees are provided with challenging work opportunities and chances to learn and grow

3. Fair compensation – companies use compensation to motivate people and pay higher wages than their competitors. They also use incentives to attract, reward and retain their people.